BETHEL — Workers are putting the finishing touches on the new, two-story police station on Judd Avenue.

First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said he visited the station last week. Each time he stops by, a new office or other section is complete, he said.

“You really see the progress accelerate at this point,” Knickerbocker said.

About 99 percent of the exterior of the $14.4 million building is complete, while electricians, painters and cleaning crews are tackling the inside, Jon Menti, chair of the building committee, said at a recent selectmen meeting.

But the station is not expected to be fully complete until Aug. 31 — later than officials had originally planned.

Menti has said that the elevators were part of the hold-up. The 10-day installation was scheduled to begin last week, followed by a state inspection.

Police Chief Jeff Finch said he is happy with how the building is shaping up. His own office already has furniture.

“It looks good,” he said. “It’s going to be a big change from here to there. The environment, the building, the room, the way things are placed.”

The new station is more than double the size of the existing building on Plumtrees Road, so the officers will have to change how they communicate, Finch said. He said he is accustomed to running into the officers often on their one floor, but they will have to go out of the way to see each other in the new building.

“It just makes it different,” Finch said.

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Officers have already started to clean out the existing building and are preparing to move crime scene evidence to the new station, he said. Although the department has hired a moving company, officers need to transport the evidence themselves. If someone else handles these items, courts would rule it out.

“The critical stuff we need to get up there and keep track of,” Finch said.

He said the 911 communication system will be installed in advance and that any interruption during the move would be slight. Still, the department has contacted Danbury about standing by during the switchover.

“But that is just a precaution in case we need it,” Finch said.

The town has stayed within its new budget since May, when voters approved an additional $889,000 to complete the building. The project had gone over its $13.5 million budget, in part because HVAC and plumbing work was more expensive than estimated.

About $150,000 remains in the contingency budget, but Menti said the construction manager told the committee that the town should not need to use it.

If that money is left over, Knickerbocker said the town should put it toward the firing range. The range will be enclosed as part of this project, but will be unusable because the approved budget did not cover equipment for the facility.

This equipment, which has been estimated to cost about $600,000, includes the target system and the air handling system. The latter is “highly specialized” and filters out the lead dust from the muzzles, Knickerbocker said.

“It’s a lot more robust than a standard air system that you would have for comfort and climate control,” he said.